If no policy interventions are implemented, Canada will be short almost 60,000 full-time equivalent RNs in 2022, according to the Canadian Nurses Association.
If policies are enacted to tackle the shortage, it’s very likely that not only will fewer students be turned away from nursing school, but that nursing will enjoy expanding roles. This will mean yet greater, exciting career avenues for nurses in Ontario.
There are signs we are headed in the right direction. According to a 2010 report by the Canadian Institute for Health Information, the number of working registered nurses (RNs) jumped by 9 percent, or 27,000, in the previous five years. The total nursing workforce is now more than 348,000. Unfortunately, the rate of RN growth is still lagging.
Nurses are in such high demand in Canada that the country simply can’t train them fast enough to fill the available jobs and so is doing everything it can to recruit them from other countries.
“It’s good news that we have so many applicants (in nursing programs),” Elizabeth Saewyc,
the director of the University of British Columbia nursing program, reportedly told the CBC earlier this year.
“But, in some ways, it’s also really frustrating news, because we get stellar candidates, but we only have 120 seats authorized by the government.”
